


Five Times Archie and Emma Shared Ice Cream

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-21 01:30:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Did you bring ice cream?”  Archie’s first impression of his partner’s family is of blond pigtails and a plastic gun being aimed at him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An AU in which FTL doesn't exist, and Archie and David are cops.
> 
> Warning: Major age difference.

“Did you bring ice cream?” Archie’s first impression of his partner’s family is of blond pigtails and a plastic gun being aimed at him. The little girl is seven, he knows from David’s proud stories. From his own observation he can tell she’s missing two teeth. She’s also apparently very serious about her desserts. When he shakes his head and holds up a bottle of wine instead of the hoped for ice cream her eyes narrow. “I haffta arrest you.”

“Emma, sweetheart, remember how we talked about making daddy’s new partner feel welcome?” Mrs. Nolan, who he’s quickly told to call Mary Margaret, smiles in bemusement at her daughter and in pleasure as she welcomes Archie and accepts his gift. David, he’s told, has run to the store for peppers. By the time he returns Archie has been relieved of his coat and tie, and his hands are bound by plastic handcuffs meant for much smaller wrists. Years later he will think of the day as the one when he found his family.

II

“How mad is he?” Emma only picks at her sundae. If the slump of her shoulders didn’t tell him how nervous she was the lack of interest in ice cream was a dead give away.

“He’s more scared than mad, Ems. I don’t need to tell you that you mean far more to him than a car.” He doesn’t mention that fact that he’d taken Emma down to the commissary because his partner was throwing up in the bathroom. He doesn’t mention, either, that he’d almost felt like doing the same. “You could have been hurt.” Or worse, but he couldn’t even think about what else could have happened.

“Stupid Killian called me a coward and he said that boys are smarter than girls.” There is a flash of righteous indignation in her eyes that made her look like a miniature of her father. Then it is gone and she looks down at the ice cream she wasn’t eating. “I didn’t mean to scare anybody. Would it help if I apologized to dad?”

“That might be a good start.” He reaches across the table and gently tugs on one of her braids. “Eat your ice cream, kiddo. You still have to tell your mom what happened too.”

II

“Boys are stupid.” Emma flops down on the couch dramatically, a scowl narrowing the space between her eyebrows.

“Is this about the dance?” Mary Margaret had confided in him earlier that Emma had been invited to her first formal.

“Dances are stupid too. Who wants to wear shoes that pinch and dresses that you can’t even run in?” From the force at which she punches the pillow under her head, Archie is pretty sure that Emma cares.

“Is that what they’re like? It doesn’t sound like I missed much.” He’d moved so much as a kid that he’d never been at a school long enough to get invited to a dance. 

“Yeah. Stupid shoes, stupid dresses, and stupid boys who kiss Mary Reed. He’s just mad because I got two runs in baseball and he didn’t get any. Am I supposed to let him beat me?”

“No.” There’s just enough uncertainty in her voice that his gut tells him to answer instead of suggesting she talk to her mom. “I think if you have to pretend for him then he’s not worth your time.”

“You know what’s worth my time?” She’s smirking, and he takes a breath in relief; he didn’t mess up too badly. 

“What’s that?”

“An ice cream cone. We don’t have to dress up to eat one or anything. Wanna walk to the corner with me to get one?”

“I’d like that.” Crisis averted, it seems, but Emma’s fifteen and there’s sure to be more. Archie’s not sure he’s ready.

II

“I bought fudge ripple,” he says as he lets himself in the back door. It’s a Friday night, and dinner with the Nolan family is such an ingrained tradition after almost a dozen years that not even David and Mary Margaret being out of town changes anything. After all, Emma still needs to eat.

“Don’t.” Emma’s face is almost green when she bolts from the room. Archie stows the ice cream in the freezer and stirs the sauce on the stove, waiting almost ten minutes before deciding to hunt down Emma.

“Kiddo?” She’s eighteen and not, as she’s told him more than once, a kid anymore, but the habit is a hard one to break.

The door to the bathroom opens and a drawn and pale Emma stands in the doorway. He’s trying to remember the last time she was sick, a rare thing for her, when he notices the hand on her stomach.

“I’m in trouble, Arch. I don’t know what to do.”

II

“Hey Arch, I need you to do something for me, okay?” Emma’s seven months pregnant, the summer heat making her miserable. He’s taken to dropping by after work a couple times a week to bring her ice cream. It’s not that Mary Margaret and David aren’t doing everything they can to help their daughter, but the baby’s father isn’t in the picture to do those things that a guy’s supposed to, and she can use the extra support. She deserves it and a lot more.

“Am I supposed to blindly agree or are you going to ask first?” They’re on the back steps, trying to catch a bit of a breeze. Archie’s sleeves are rolled up and suspenders abandoned. He holds a spoon but hasn’t tried to take more than a few bites out of the carton.

“Just don’t tell me this is because of hormones, okay? It’s not about the kid, it’s about me.” Archie cocks his head, trying to figure out what ‘this’ is.

She kisses him, and tastes of ice cream.

Oh.


	2. Being There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I had to see for myself.” In the grey light he could just make out her plaid pants and faded sweatshirt. Her pajamas, he guessed. She’d driven over in the dark in her pajamas for some reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No ice cream, but in the same verse so I thought I'd put it here.

He barely made it to his bed, and didn’t even bother undressing other than to toe off his shoes. The adrenalin kept him going through the necessary debriefing and the drive home, but now he didn’t have the energy to even pull back the blankets. He was asleep moments after hitting the pillow.

When he woke up it was dawn and he wasn’t alone. “Emma?”

“I had to see for myself.” In the grey light he could just make out her plaid pants and faded sweatshirt. Her pajamas, he guessed. She’d driven over in the dark in her pajamas for some reason.

“See?” His brain was still foggy. It had been a over twenty four hours since he’d slept, and half that time spent bartering for the lives of eleven hostages.

“Dad said that you were alright, but I tried to call and there wasn’t an answer.” She sat at the end of the bed, legs crossed. He couldn’t make out her expression clearly, but he could hear the worry in her voice.

“I’m fine. I’m just, I’m tired, that’s all. Just tired.” Six people dead, four of them innocent victims, and three more in the hospital. One wasn’t expected to make it. “I’m sorry. I should have made sure my phone was next to my bed.”

“Dad hasn’t slept yet. Mom keeps trying to get him to go to bed, but he keeps drinking coffee and pacing. I gave him Henry, and that’s at least calmed him a little. Both of them, actually, since Henry’s been fussy.” 

“Sometimes it’s easier to stay awake.” He’d been there often enough, at his partner’s side, pouring the coffee and playing hands of poker until the numbers didn’t make sense anymore. Staying awake at least meant avoiding the nightmares a little longer.

“I know. As much as I can know, which isn’t, you know, everything but I’ve seen it before. I know that when he finally crashes mom will be there with him. And it made me think about how many times you’ve gone home after things like this and there hasn’t been someone there with you.” She moved closer, kneeling down at his side. Somehow it didn’t feel strange that she was there, though it should. Other than watering his plants when he was on vacation he didn’t think she’d ever been in his bedroom.

“I’m fine,” he repeated. “I don’t need…”

“I do. I need a lot of things, Archie. I need to know that you’re really okay and not just saying it so people don’t worry about you. I need to be angry that some bastard with a gun though that he could play god today, and that two of the most important people in my life could have paid the price for that. And I need to touch you. I’ve needed that for a long time, but somehow the timing hasn’t been right.” Her fingers slipped between two of the buttons of his shirt, caressing his skin just above his heart.

“You’ve been busy with Henry.” He’d held her son the day he was born, and fallen in love with the small boy instantly. Emma was a mother, and a good one. He’d watched her for almost six months now, learning how to take care of her son, watching her feed him and play with him. Her face lit up when she managed to get him to laugh, and she worried when she watched her father toss him in the air or when Henry was teething.

He’d fallen even more in love with her, just watching her with her son.

“I had a lot of things to figure out, and a lot to prove to myself. I let things slide, and took things for granted. Like you. You’ve always been there for me, Arch, since I was seven. I haven’t been doing a very good job of returning the favor.”

“You…”

“No.” She covered his mouth with her hand. “I haven’t. But I want to be, Archie. I want you and me to be something, and I know things are complicated and I know there’s a lot we need to talk about, but right now I just want to be here because I want you to know that you’re not alone, and that if anything had happened today it would have broken my heart a thousand times more than Henry’s father ever could have done.”

“You do more for me than you know, Emma Nolan.” He reached up for her, and she wrapped her arms around him. For a time they said nothing, but simply held each other.


End file.
